Was ist der Unterschied zwischen einem Plastiksackerl und einer Blondine? Das eine ist ein Dingsbums, das andere ein Bumsdings. I wouldn't consider it rude, but not part of the high language, which also reflects in this joke and pun on words.
–
Samuel HerzogJun 2 '11 at 15:16

1

I think it's children's language. If you use the word, you sound as if you are talking to (or among) children.
–
Andrew J. BrehmJun 2 '11 at 15:41

4

Dingsbums is informal and cute, and doesn't have any sexual connotation at all.
–
fzwoJun 2 '11 at 16:42

6

It is not children's language. It is a kind of lazy talk, but not child-ish. I think it is close in style to "thingy" as used in "Men in black".
–
TheBlastOneJun 2 '11 at 18:04

12 Answers
12

I have never connected dingsbums with bumsen. I don't think this connection is usually made.

To me dingsbums is a perfectly fine word to use, albeit very colloquial and hence not necessarily appropriate in serious situations. It's only rude if you keep referring to somebody as dingsbums whose name you should know. ;-)

Absolutely not. Even though "Dingsbums" is colloquial, it is widely used when you don't know how to call a thing, which you might not be able to point at. "Dingsda" is more used if there is an object that you can point at but forgot how to call it.

It's not rude, most people wouldn't associate it with 'bumsen'. But it is definitely a very very informal word (if it can be called a word at all) and would seem very sloppy or even clumsy in any kind of formal setting. So just keep using it to score with German friends and otherwise don't use it at all. :)

Definitely doesn't have any sexual connotations, at least not when I was growing up in Austria over 20 years ago.
Where did you hear that it might be unacceptable? It's very informal, perhaps child-like, but in no way offensive. So use it with abandon in informal contexts, but not in a boardroom.
The closest I can come off the top of my head to an equivalent in English is something along the lines of "thingamabob".

I can't remember where I heard that. Perhaps on the internet since I wasn't aware of the word bumsen before and in fact have never used it since either. I only learned about bumsen in my quest to find out all about Dingsbums. I learned dingsbums from friends or friends of friends in Germany or Switzerland about ten years ago but I have also collected synonyms and translations of thingamabob in other languages (-:
–
hippietrailJun 2 '11 at 18:18

Granted, if you reverse the 2 pieces, and said "Bumsdings" instead, you can imagine an entirely different image popping up in people's minds. A mistake you'd want to avoid.
–
Philipp HanesDec 16 '12 at 22:05

Bums is an onomatopoetic word for the sound of a collision, somewhat equivalent to the English crash or boom. It’s commonly used in children’s speak and was in fact one of the very first words my son could say. If boom or crash is used in an English children’s comic, it is likely to be translated as bums without anybody thinking about complaining. Going by this ngram, it’s probably older than bumsen or Dingsbums.

From this, you get bumsen, whose primary use is to describe a noisy collision or the sound made by it. I would strongly guess that the secondary use for sexual intercourse originated from the primary use (as a noisy collision of two people).

Dingsbums finally is a fusion of Dings (thingy) and bums. Here, I would guess that the choice of bums has no deeper meaning and was just made for the sound of the final product. Whatever, its origin may be, it’s lost nowadays and thus Dingsbums is as meaningful as the English doohickey or thingamob (unless I missed some special meaning of the latter two).

To conclude, the word Dingsbums has as much sexual connotation as the word fingernail or fishbone. Either way, it’s rather colloquial but (in my experience) not much more than other words with that function and it is not much less or better accepted than Dingsda or just Dings.

Dingsbums does imply that you know the proper name, you just can't think of it right now. As such, a proper "formal alternative" would be something along the lines of "Der Name ist mir gerade entfallen, aber dieses [Gerät] ist…". Simply Ding doesn't quite catch that.
–
decezeJun 2 '11 at 12:11

As it indeed is better to name a thing (e.g. Gerät), it's accepted to only use Ding even when in a formal setting. This way it keeps your expression short and you don't distract from the point you want ot make.
–
Takkat♦Jun 2 '11 at 13:36